When Elizabethtown College students want to build up their muscles or spend an hour working out, they can always rely on the services of the Bowers Center. This five-year-old building gave the campus community incredible benefits thanks to its large spaces for sporting events and a plethora of classes like Pound or Pilates.
But what about exercise classes that students can receive credits for? Elizabethtown College offers courses in yoga (PE100) and fitness (PE120) for students to learn about different exercises.
However, what’s even more intriguing than the courses themselves is the teacher behind them: Professor Charla Lorenzen. She is a member of the College’s Spanish department and an advocate for fitness and student wellness.
Lorenzen’s career started with a desire to teach future generations of students. After finishing graduate school at the University of Texas for foreign languages and education, she applied to Elizabethtown College and joined one of the College’s foreign language programs.
Lorenzen heavily imbues her courses with a desire to educate and engage with her students while developing their aptitude for learning. She said she frequently tries to ensure students are interested and interacting with her classes, referring to a recent lecture where she asked students what they thought about the course’s materials.
“I didn’t want to just teach somewhere in an education department because then, I would be telling future teachers about the way I used to teach like five or ten years ago,” Lorenzen said. “I wanted a kind of back and forth with future teachers, and I love it because it helps me keep my classes fresh.Instead of just talking about theory, I can talk about practice.”
However, Lorenzen’s lifestyle eventually motivated her to teach fitness classes as well. She notes how she usually doesn’t relax by watching TV or other similar activities but by working out. She eventually wanted to share the “joy of exercising” with others, inspiring her to teach fitness classes.
Her prior jobs helped her accomplish this at Elizabethtown College. Lorenzen says she taught fitness classes at a local gym when she was 14, having been taught by the other instructors after she displayed significant dedication to the job.
Her aptitude in exercise—and a part of her philosophy as a teacher—increased further when another fitness-related career required her to become adept in several courses, inspiring her to stay “open-minded when learning new things.”
Even before she taught PE100 and PE120 at Elizabethtown, Lorenzen created opportunities for the Blue Jay Community. She mentioned how she inspired the employee wellness team to provide students with fitness classes. Lorenzen also notes how the location of these classes changed frequently as the Bowers Center didn’t exist yet, but she persisted as students exercised everywhere from local gyms to the basement of Royer Hall.
Her passion for fitness drove her to advocate for the very building those classes now take place in. Lorenzen stated she was on a committee debating whether the Bowers Center should be built and that she constantly pushed for the building’s creation and its role in bolstering the general well-being of the campus community.
“I kept saying it’s really important for our students’ mental and physical health to have a place to go to, especially if you have roommate issues or family issues or any kind of issue,”Lorenzen said. “You’ve got the library, but [the Bowers Center] is a place where you can come and also exercise and get some of your stress out.”
Her impact on the community is visible, not only in a literal sense—in the form of the Bowers Center—but also in her ability to share that joy of exercising. PE100 often fills up incredibly quickly when course registration rolls around, as students are excited to experience one of the college’s most intriguing courses with a teacher whose passion for teaching, health and fitness shines brightly.
“I love sharing the joy of fitness with everyone,”Lorenzen said. “I think people are better students, better employees, and better people when they exercise.”
